


You Should See The Things We Do...

by duchessofthemoonbase



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Dreams, F/M, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-30 14:41:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12655566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duchessofthemoonbase/pseuds/duchessofthemoonbase
Summary: A mysterious gift box arrives from the Doctor on Clara and Danny's three-month anniversary, and inside is a futuristic device meant to bring couples closer, one that allows them to step into each other's dreams......because all of Clara Oswald's dreams are about Danny, right?





	You Should See The Things We Do...

**Author's Note:**

> Set around the time of the Caretaker.

Clara idly laced her fingers around the black ribbon that adorned the top of the package. Danny would be home any minute, and Clara had a nagging feeling that he wouldn’t take to this surprise very well.

The card lay like a threat across the top of the box, adorned with an ancient, messy script in sparkling blue gel pen.

“To Clara and Danny. Happy three months. Best, The Doctor.”

Clara wrapped her robe tighter around herself. Three months already. Three months of lies and confusion. Lies to them and lies to herself. Three months of failing to make a decision…between what she knew she wanted and what she knew she should.

Clara heard the door creak open and let a smile warm up her face a little too quickly.

“Danny!” she exclaimed happily, letting him in and shivering as the cold autumn air of the London evening came in after him. “Happy three months!” Clara waved her hands about in the way she did when she was trying to excite her students about an old Elizabethan poem that even she found boring.

“Happy three months!” Danny echoed, scooping her up in a hug. “I picked up curry takeaway, and I have a bottle of chardonnay, and I was thinking we could finally watch _Casablanca_ like you’ve been bugging me to.”

“Really though, you _are_ the only person alive who’s never seen that film,” Clara giggled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny said, kissing her on the forehead, and in the warmth of the moment, Clara nearly forgot about the-

“You got me a present?” Danny asked, looking at the package, and it broke Clara’s heart to have to tell him where it came from.

“No, actually, it’s um…” Clara bit her lip.

“It’s what, Clara.”

“It’s from the Doctor.”

“Oh,” Danny said, trying his best not to get angry. “Isn’t it weird to get three-month anniversary presents from other people? I mean, I didn’t even think we were getting presents for each other, unless you wanted to.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, I didn’t get anything either,” Clara mumbled awkwardly. “The Doctor just doesn’t quite get how…you know…how these human things work, you understand.”

Danny threw himself onto the couch with a bit of annoyance. "I can see that."

Clara cuddled down next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry about the question I asked the other day,” Danny said. “I’m sorry if it sounded…accusatory.”

“What question?”

“If you love him,” Danny said. “I mean, he’s a weird, grey-haired man from space, and we’re dating, and I trust you. It was a stupid thing to ask.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clara said. She smiled and fiddled with the edge of her bathrobe. “So, what now, do we open it?”

“I guess,” Danny said, and lifted the box off the table. “I’m a little nervous,” he laughed. “I mean, I’ve never gotten a gift from an alien before.”

Clara giggled. “Well, he has gotten better.”

Danny slowly lifted the lid off the box and peeked inside, as if he was afraid that something might crawl out and attack him, which, knowing the Doctor, wasn’t that ridiculous of a precaution.

Inside the box lay what looked like two pairs of futuristic headphones. They were padded like earmuffs and had a tiny touch screen on the side of one of the ears for the controls.

“Do I even want to know?” Danny asked, and picked up one of the headsets cautiously. “Ah-ha!” he said, locating a tiny button on the side of the headphones that read “PROJECT INITIAL INSTRUCTIONS.”

Suddenly, a beam of light came out of the headset, and instantly a video splayed itself on the empty wall closest to them. Clara giggled with excitement.

A woman appeared on screen dressed in what looked like a mashup of Victorian and futuristic fashion. Her dress had a withered-looking corset at the top and a kind of metallic tinted tutu extending from it. Her hair was streaked with blonde and light purple, and she seemed to be wearing some sort of contacts that made her eyes glow a bright, artificial aqua.

_Welcome to DREAM VISIONS FOR COUPLES, the most INTIMATE dreaming experience to share with YOUR partner!_

Danny recoiled a bit. “This isn’t some sort of sex toy, is it?” he said, looking at Clara nervously. She shrugged.

The woman modeled the strange-looking headset on herself and twirled around on screen. _After you and your partner spend a long day apart, the DREAM VISIONS HEADSET gives you a chance to emotionally connect in the most intimate way technology can allow._

“Are you _sure_ it’s not a sex toy?” Danny asked, and Clara punched him playfully.

_When you and your partner turn in for the night, just set your DREAM VISIONS couples headsets to sleep mode using the touch screen panel. Before you know it, you’ll be walking in the visionary, beautiful landscapes of the dream world of your beloved._

“Oh,” Danny said. “It switches our dreams. I dream your dreams, you dream my dream. That’s just insane.”

Clara nuzzled farther under her blanket, bit her lip, and looked towards the clock. “Let’s watch _Casablanca_ now, okay?”

“Sounds good,” Danny said, wrapping his arm back around Clara as she fiddled with the tv remote. “So, we’re gonna try these, right? They’re safe?”

“Yeah,” Clara said, turning the volume up. “Pour me a glass of that Chardonnay. You’re about to have the film viewing experience of a lifetime.”

“Eh,” Danny said. “Is this movie really as good as everyone says it is?”

“Yes!” Clara said, and laughed as she cuddled closer to him.

As the music swelled, Clara downed almost half her glass of wine and picked at her fingernails nervously. Fingers danced across pianos and Americans mingled in Rick’s Café, glowing in soft black and white on screen in front of her. Clara could hardly focus. The headsets were still sitting peacefully on the table, just waiting to be turned on. 

 

***

 

“Mm...I’m exhausted,” Clara said as the screen faded to black. She was drowsy from the wine, which had thankfully calmed her nerves a bit. “Let’s go to sleep,” she yawned, hoping that maybe Danny would forget about the headsets.

“Awesome,” Danny said. “I’ll be in with the headsets in a minute.”

Clara groaned as she left the room...so much for forgetting. She buried herself under the blankets of her bed, and for once in her life, she was dreading going to sleep after a long day.

Danny came in with the headsets, and Clara tried her best not to act worried or suspicious, feigning the best smile she could muster.

“Here you are,” Danny said, adjusting the headset on Clara and switching it on after he had put on his own. After their headsets were both secure, they heard a small, celebratory beeping noise, and the headsets briefly glowed a faint pink.

“I guess that means they’re ready,” Clara said. “Wait…you don’t think…”

“What?”

“I mean,” Clara tried not to smile, as she had thought of the perfect excuse. “I know you have nightmares about the war sometimes…really intense ones, and I don’t know if…”

“Don’t worry!” Danny said. “Remember the instruction video said the headsets track your serotonin levels, so you only end up entering the happy dreams of your partner…” Danny grinned. “…or the sexy ones.”

Clara laughed and wondered if she should sneak into the kitchen and down five energy drinks while Danny wasn’t looking. She could endure a long night of lying awake next to him more than she could endure Danny’s reaction if he ever saw…

Clara sighed. She had a teacher evaluation in the morning. She needed sleep.

“Goodnight, Clara,” Danny said, kissing her forehead. “Sleep well, I love you.”

“Goodnight,” Clara said, and sunk deep into her pillow.

She found herself scolding and threatening her brain as she drifted off to sleep.

_Please, for the love of god, Behave!_

 

***

 

_Clara was Danny._

_She guessed that this was how these headsets worked. She was Danny, dreaming Danny’s dreams. All of his dreams were bright and_   _clear,_ _like they took place in mid-morning. She was standing next to herself, tiny and pretty in her black and red floral skirt and high-heeled boots, walking alongside Danny on a London street. The crowds of people beyond were pale blurs, but her own face came in clear, vivid and technicolor._

_“Let’s get some coffee, yeah?” she was saying, grabbing Danny’s hand, and they ran in and out of shops._

_As Danny, she kissed herself on the cheek, and in this reality, she beamed at him like he was the only star in her sky._

 

***

 

_“So where are we off to today?” the Doctor asked, pushing a lever on the console. “How would you feel about the Lair of Zarbi Supremo? I promised him you wouldn’t make that joke about the bug spray this time.”_

_“Oh, maybe not today,” Clara said, her hand ghosting across the top of the railing as she approached the Doctor. Danny remembered then, way back in his conscious mind, that he had a dream headset on, and that he was dreaming Clara’s dream, from Clara’s perspective._

_“Well, what would you like to do then?” the Doctor asked._

_Danny watched as Clara’s legs moved slowly, one after the other, until she was face to face with the Doctor. “You idiot,” Clara said. “You know what I want from you…what I’ve…” she ran a red-painted fingernail down his navy coat. “…what I’ve always needed from you.”_

_The Doctor smirked down at her. “You know why I can’t give you that, Clara.”_

_“And why not?” she demanded._

_“Because, Clara, not too long ago you told me that you had a boyfriend, and that you loved him,” he said, giving her a scolding look._

_“Sometimes,” Clara said. “You tell people you love them because you want them to know. And sometimes you tell them because you want to convince yourself it’s true.”_

_The Doctor sighed. “Then end it, Clara. End it now. Quit pretending like you can balance your two lives and your two men forever. You can’t.” He approached her and placed a long-fingered hand on her waist. “Tell Danny you’ve lied. Tell him you’ve never truly loved him. Tell him you belong in the stars, with me, and that you’re leaving and never coming back.” The Doctor gave Clara an authoritative look. “…And then I’ll give you what you want.”_

_Somewhere in the back of Danny’s mind, he was raging, he was screaming, he was punching walls—but he was trapped here, by curiosity or the headset or hell knows what, and he stood there in Clara’s place, watching the scene unfold before him._

_Danny watched as Clara reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She ran to the doors of the Tardis and threw them wide open to the great expanse of space, and Danny watched as she chucked her phone into the nothingness as if it were a piece of trash, feeling a lurch of seasickness as he watched it begin its endless fall into forever._

_“Is it done?” the Doctor asked._

_Clara sauntered up to the Doctor and looked directly at him. “Me and Earth—we’re finished.” She stroked his face with her hand and beamed. “Now shut up and show me the stars.”_

_“The stars, hm?” the Doctor said in his rough Scottish brogue. “A few minutes ago, you were rather desperate for something else.”_

_The Doctor threw Clara up onto the console and smiled._

_“Well, maybe that first,” she said._  

 

***

 

The first thing Clara saw when she woke up was Danny throwing on his clothes and grabbing his keys.

“Hey!” Clara said confusedly. “What time is it, where are you going?”

Danny shook his head. “We’re over, Clara. We’re done. I can’t take the lies anymore.”

“Danny!” Clara said, suddenly remembering again that they went to sleep wearing the dream headsets. “Stay, just talk to me, please. What’s going on? Is it the dream headset? I’ll tell you what I saw in your head, if you want.” Clara pleaded. “What the hell did you see that's made you so upset?” 

Danny scoffed. “You say that like you don’t know.”

He walked out the door without an explanation. And he was right.

Clara didn’t need one.


End file.
